The Marda Loop CA's assertion that "missing middle" housing has to have 2-3 bedrooms and a parking spot also made me choke on my figurative breakfast. Who came up with that?
The wonderful thing about Calgary is that CPC and Council almost never give a $hit what local CA's have to say when considering land use and DPs. It's kind of amazing that the politics work in the way they do. I am continually surprised that people spend hours writing these letters, going to meetings, and 95% of the time they have no impact on the decision.
The 2-3 bedrooms argument is nonsense. I do think that the parking issue is legitimate. I’d like to be able to trust the statistics on car ownership and believe that a 1:1 parking stall to unit ratio isn’t required, but anecdotally, as someone who lives in Marda Loop, I have difficulty believing that car ownership in the area isn’t >1:1, and even though these are “missing middle” units, car ownership will still be close to, if not above 1:1.
Marda Loop has decent transit, but it just isn’t quite adequately serviced enough to impact car ownership.
I’ll use an observation of an infill built at the SE corner of 33 Ave SW and 17 St.
It has 4 units above grade and 4 basement suites. There is a garage for 4 vehicles. Since completion, the street in front of the building always has cars parked in front of it. The building isn’t fully leased.
A few buildings like the ones being proposed here won’t substantially impact street parking volumes, but as more and more of these buildings are proposed with ~0.5:1 ratios, it will become a problem.
Compounding this issue is that the City is proposing to remove 50+ Parking spaces (and narrowing the road width) on 34 Ave SW as part of the proposed cycling amenities. Add the changes that will also occur on 33 Ave SW as part of Main Streets, the area is likely to lose more parking.
I’m all for these changes. I think they will better the neighbourhood, but I do think the City needs to do something to address parking in the neighbourhood before it becomes more of an issue than it is.
A good place to start would be to incentivize people to park in their garages by introducing permitted parking. My family owns one car. We park in our garage. We commute by bus or bike. Many of our neighbours have 2 or even 3 vehicles. Some might park one vehicle in their garage. Some might not use their garage for parking at all (what they use them for I don’t know). People should be required to pay to store their vehicles. If that cost isn’t in the cost of their mortgage or rent because their residence doesn’t have adequate parking for their needs, then they should pay to park their vehicle on the street or in a lot.
Low parking ratios are good for density, but they really benefit the developers who reap the cost savings, and the people who own or rent these homes who see some of the cost savings passed on to them, but this comes at a cost to the neighbourhood by way of streets packed with parked cars (reduced visibility for drivers, increased potential for conflicts with cyclists, reduced short term parking for patrons of businesses, etc.).
